You are the 46 year old Baron of Dune. Your heir should have
been your eldest son Henri but he opted to forfeit it to join the Church and is
now the Bishop of Rathen.Your
second Gilbert will succeed you and your third son Sir Richard is accompanying
you. You did not take part in last year’s Crusade, when Thentis Perigord Neradh
and Bara drove back the Chaotic Emissary Mephista’s offensive. Dune being a
prosperous province unthreatened by hostile neighbours and adjacent to the Royal
Province of Thentis, you served on the Regency Council in Ekthalon. However when
this year’s Crusade was called you felt it your Eruvian duty to take part.
Whilst you had taken part in campaigns against the Chaotics from Narchad in the
past, you had never ventured onto the wilds of Northeast Morval Earth. Your wife
Roslyn Bayonne is perfectly capable of managing the Barony whilst you are away,
despite any interference by Gilbert. You have fought at both Tikjolit and Tikhar
under Duke Pietro but now you have a chance to hold an independent command. Duke
Pietro’s ship the St. Gilbert was badly damaged by a pirate ship and you had to
escort it into Sklavis harbour. It will take at least a week to be repaired, so
the Duke’s decision is that your St. Fabiola with the St. Amadour shall sail out
on the Crusade. They will be followed by the other two later. His wife the
Duchess Angelique with her St. Melania has preferred to stay behind, to keep an
eye on him! Five years ago you lost your Lymphad the St. Aniseed to pirates, so
you regret that those you encountered yesterday were allowed to get away. You
are afraid that they will prey on the vessels supplying the Crusade with food
and wines, so you have permission to attack any you encounter on the way to
Agetsu. Lady Margeuritte Des Confetes who Commands the St. Amadour, is of the
same mind. She is a Barbaran heretic from the wild Alpenais province and her
ship is crammed with mad women who think they can fight as well as men! She does
have six billmen aboard as well.

On this 19th of the Third Moon you sail
out into the Sundering Sea with the wind SSE. When a safe distance away from the
shore you turn north. In the late morning you sight a sail. It looks to be one
of the pirate nefs that you fought yesterday! As you get closer this is
confirmed, so you shout back to the St. Amadour that you will be attacking it!
The St. Amadour shouts back that they will support you.

You are Commander Giacomo Estori from a wealthy Vendola
family. Vendola is a small port on the coast of the Arwyn delta. Both Elysa and
Fara have claimed it be within their boundaries but mostly have lacked the naval
forces needed to collect taxes from it. As a result it has become the haunt of
the Larete Balokha smugglers and pirates. Your Uncle gave you command of the Cog
Aniseed, formerly in Varadh Dwarf ownership. It had been won in a crooked game
of cards, a highly illegal activity for a dwarf. Used initially for legitimate
trading, Wizard Risenstar of the Larete Balokha soon involved you and your
skipper Lanzo in criminal activities.

During these you met Admiral Valente Degollar of Azelad.
Impressed with you, he gave you command of the brand new Nef Evasofah when it
emerged from the Sklavis dockyard. So as now a member of the Azeladian Fleet,
you had to obey his orders and so came under Victor FizValente, son of the
Admiral. This even though you had far more experience of traversing the highly
dangerous waters in and around the Arwyn Delta. However the pay was good and
Valente normally allowed you to enter into small profitable side ventures. You
in fact had increased these whilst Valente was away in a dungeon in Bara.
However when the Azeladian Civil War broke out, Valente then ransomed put you
under Victor to blockade Sklavis. When the war ended with the Degollar faction
defeated, you persuaded Victor to turn to piracy. Unfortunately his first action
was to have severe damage done to his Nef Lamtotir and your own had its sail set
afire. Once that was replaced, you had to assist Victor’s vessel back to Vendola
to effect repairs when it was like to sink! Once there you decided that there
was no point in staying when there could be fat prizes sailing to and from
Tikjolit. Whilst over the years you had obeyed Valente’s piracy principles, you
did have ideas of your own. Some traders who had heard of the principles
actually had fake wooden dolphins made, to hang from the yards of their ships.
Also you knew that sometimes dolphins did not penetrate through all the three
decks of a heavy built ship. With this in mind you provided your Nef with two
spare sails folded into a mattress which could be placed under a dolphin and
mitigate the damage that it could do! When earlier operating by yourself, you
even had squads of four men each side, trained to put them into position.

{Mattresses D10 needing 2+ to intercept a
dolphin & counting as additional deck. If only 3 men needs 4+}

You sailed out into the Sundering Sea and turn south. Having
passed the southern tip of the Delta, you were wondering how soon to heave too,
when two sails are sighted. They are two Lymphads and the lead one is the same
that set fire to your sail yesterday! You order fire buckets to be put at the
ready and sail towards these foes. You hope that most of the fighting strength
of the enemy was in the lead Lymphad that was damaged. You hope that these
vessels may be carrying the crusaders horseless womenfolk back to Thentis, so
rich ransoms may be available. You know that the invading army had virtually no
mounts with it. Being just the one ship you will not have to share the profits
with anyone else. Forward to riches!

The wind is lighter than it was yesterday so ramming is far
less likely to damage either your Nef or the Lymphads. It is ESE 10” so slightly
favouring them!